Fire Emblem Awakening DLC Map - Apotheosis (No DLC Skills/Items or Rallies)

[Greil Mercenaries]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNPUglGV6wc

Video Description

In this video you will see me beat the hardest DLC map in Fire Emblem Awakening titled Apotheosis.  I will defeat the secret path, which has much harder enemies than the normal path.  I will do it without DLC skills or DLC items.  Also, it’s very important to note that no rally skills will be used.  Rally skills are nice, but they are just really overpowered in Awakening.  Also, I do not like the concept of a “Rally Bot” character.

Anyway, commentary for each member of my team is provided below.  If anyone can think of a more optimal team without DLC/rallies then please let me know.  I would be very interested in hearing it.

Chrom - Sniper

Not the most useful unit, but he does have Longbow, which can always help.  He also gives Sumia access to the convoy for her staves, which is amazing.

Skills: Aether, Luna, Bowfaire, Rightful King, and Dual Strike+

Sumia – Sage

She can basically use any staves basically as much as she wants due to her access to the convoy.  Galeforce allows her to finish off those close to dying without wasting a turn.

Skills: Galeforce, Luna, Tombfaire, Speed +2, and Healtouch

Hatchumo (Avatar) – Berserker

As a male he gets access to the berserker class which is the best pair up supporting class for Apotheosis.  Everyone who has played the secret path knows how crucial it is to get at least 60 speed.  This is mostly so that the enemies with 64 speed cannot double you.  With their high strength, the berserker calss can do good damage from the supporting position despite the very high stats on the enemies in this map.  Berserkers have bad accuracy, but with hit rate +20, Anathema, and Hex the Avatar is able to overcome that weakness for the most part without having to rely on breaker skills.  Finally the Berserk give great strength boost to the lead unit which is perfect for the hit and run tactics of Apotheosis.

Skills: Axefaire, Hit Rate +20, Anathema, Hex, and Strength +2

Lucina (Parents: Chrom/Sumia) – Great Lord

Out of my four major lead combat units with 60 speed (Morgan, Severa, Noire, and Lucina), Lucina is the only one that does not use bows or have the Vengeance skill.  This helps greatly to diversify my team.  She can do more damage to those with Aegis+ instead of Pavise+, and she does not have to be at low heath to deal good damage.  You will see that she is extremely good for taking out the sorcerers on Waves 3 and 5 due to her high resistance and being able to make use of Luna and Aether at high health.  Dual Strike+ is definitely preferred to the Rightful King skill so that Hatchumo can get more hits in with the Brave Axe.  The Defender skill is to get to up to 60 speed.  The Ragnell weapon gives her range to deal with the enemies with the counter skill.  I think seeing Lucina with Ike’s weapon, the Ragnell, is very awesome and fitting.

Skills: Galeforce, Aether, Luna, Dual Strike+, and Defender

Morgan (Parents: Lucina/Hatchumo) – Sniper

Now we move on to by far the most OP bastard in this game…  Morgan.  As the granddaughter of Sumia through Lucina, Morgan can actually reach 60 speed as a Sniper!  This is insane since as a Sniper she also gets access to the Double Bow.  At the beginning of the file I chose plus speed and minus defense on my Avatar, which is key for this build.  As an added bonus, the minus defense actually helps Morgan due to Vengeance!  She owns the living shit out of Anna without any counter attack attempts… that is just way too good.  Hit Rate plus 20 is to help with the accuracy issues of the Double Bow.  I did not feel like Dual Strike+ was necessary, but that may be a little more optimal – hard to say.

Skills: Galeforce, Vengeance, Bowfaire, Hite Rate +20, and Defender

Gerome (Parents: Cherche/Vaike) – Berserker

I think everyone knows by now that Vaike is the best father for Gerome.  This raises his max strength to 57 as a Berserker, which is the highest in the game without counting Morgan or DLC.  Using this high support damage in combination with the Double Bow is extremely good.  He also has access to breaker skills which help his accuracy a lot.  Most notably he has Swordbreaker to solve his weapon triangle issues and Lancebreaker to ensure that he hits Anna in Wave 5.

Skills: Axefaire, Swordbreaker, Lancebreaker, Axebreaker, Strength +2

Severa (Parents: Cordelia/Stahl) – Assassin

She challenges Lucina to be possibly my second best unit.  I think that Cordelia is probably the best mother in the game.  She gives Severa great max stat modifiers as well as the two best skills in the game, Galeforce and Vengeance.  Stahl just brings everything together for her by providing access to Bowfaire and the Assassin class.  Too bad “Selena” doesn’t kick this much ass in Fates, but she gets the job done. 

Severa and Inigo are a couple of my favorite characters in this game, so it is nice that they pair up so well for this map.  I’ve seen many people use a build where they make Lon’qu Severa’s father so she can have 60 speed as a Hero and take on Anna with Lancebreaker.  This is cool, but very unnecessary due to the way I set up my Morgan.  Lon’qu is a better father for Laurent anyway.

Skills: Galeforce, Vengeance, Bowfaire, Anathema, and Defender

Inigo (Parents: Olivia/Fredrick) – Berserker

By default Inigo has access to the Barbarian class, and Fredrick gives him access to Swordbreaker as well as a good strength modifier.  I think I smell another Berserker.  I had room for kind of a filler skill so I decided to just give him Galeforce, which he can inherit through Olivia.  This allows my more powerful units to not waste a turn if I just need to finish someone off. 

P.S. I really like the map where you recruit Inigo.  It took some planning, but I have beaten it before where Inigio got every single kill.

Skills: Galeforce, Axefaire, Swordbreaker, Axebreaker, and Strength +2.

Cynthia (Parents: Sumia/Chrom) – Dark Flier

Another one of the child characters in this game that I particularly like.  She and Owain are definitely my favorite couple in Awakening.  These ridiculous bastards were just made for each other… lol.  Since Chrom is her father that actually makes Owain her cousin, but that’s the way it goes I guess.  Anyway, she is my only flying unit, which is very interesting.  The Dark Flier class has amazing support bonuses for other magic users, and she can definitely get the job done herself with that great skill set.  Her mobility is rather amazing as well.

Skills: Galefore, Aether, Luna, Tombfaire, and Defender

Owain (Parents: Lissa/Henry) – Sage

What to say about Owain…  He’s a freaking idiot, but a loveable one.  Henry is a great father for him as Vantage and Vengeance is possibly the most OP skill combination in this game.  Lissa give him Galeforce as well as a great Magic stat.  Owain is not the best, but very useful.  As a Sage he can even use staves when all else fails.

Skills: Galefore, Vengeance, Vantage, Tombfaire, and Anathema

Noire (Parents: Tharja/Gaius) – Assassin

Noire is extremely good, and with Gaius as her father she can do well at just about anything.  Unfortunately she is never going to be the best at anything though.  On this team I made her an Assassin very similar to Severa, but she is not quite as good.  This is fine.  With 60 speed and that skill set, I would consider her very high tier.  Again, something may have fit better than hit rate +20, but it definitely doesn’t matter much.

Skills: Galeforce, Vengeance, Bowfaire, Anathema, and Hit Rate +20

Yarne (Parents: Panne/Gregor) – Berserker

He is most definitely one of the worst children characters, but this doesn’t matter too much since the children kick some serious ass.  As a Berserker he helps out Noire tremendously.  I had one skill slot that I just could not figure out how to fill, so I just gave him Movement +1.

Skills: Axefaire, Swordbreaker, Axebreaker, Bowbreaker, and Movement +1

Laurent (Parents: Miriel/Lon’qu) – Sage

Laurent is a beast, but not so much at the hit and run tactics in Apotheosis.  He sits back and doesn’t do much other than use staves for most of the run until it really counts in the final wave.  Vantage and Vengeance is just way too ridiculous.  I have to say, my favorite part of the video is probably when he owns all those archers on defender phase in Wave 5.

Skills: Vengeance, Vantage, Tombfaire, Magic +2, and Movement +1

Nah (Parents: Nowi/Libra) - Sage

She is a good support for Laurent.  With Deliverer she is very mobile, and as a Sage she can use that almighty Rescue staff.  Anathema is always good too, which is probably the main reason I went with Libra as the father.

Skills: Tombfaire, Anathema, Hex, Magic +2, and Deliverer

Brady (Parents: Maribelle/Virion) – Sage

Yet another sage.  Due to him and Maribelle having Galeforce, they can definitely help out offensively.  He can actually reach 60 speed with the Forseti, which is kind of cool.

Skills: Galeforce, Luna, Tombfaire, Magic +2, and Defender

Maribelle – Valkyrie

She is one of the very few characters on this team that is neither second generation or a SpotPass character.  The Valkyrie class gives her mobility and staff usage, not to mention a speed/magic boost for Brady.  Of course Galeforce is always nice too.  Her extremely high resistance comes in handy on more than one occasion.  Dual Support+ is really just filler, but whatever.

Skills: Galeforce, Tombfaire, Magic +2, Speed +2, and Dual Support+

Nanna, Minerva, and Raquesis – Valkyrie

These are SpotPass units that are basically identical for purposes of this team.  Anathema, Hex, and Charm all boost accuracy and Movement +1 is just for mobility.  Tombfaire just gives them more range on their Rescue/Catharsis staves.

Skills: Tombfaire, Anathema, Hex, Charm, and Movement +1

Olivia – Dancer

She might possibly beat out Severa and Lucina as the second best unit on the team, since she lets Morgan move twice.  Anyway, dancers are beyond useful.  You only get one Boots item, and there is no doubt that it should go to Olivia.  With the Balmung equipped, she will get doubled by fewer enemies, allowing her to actually be able to take a hit in some situations.  Pass lets her have even more utility as a dancer.

Skills: Special Dance, Pass, Galeforce, Swordfaire, and Speed +2

Edited March 17, 2017 by Greil Mercenaries

[Vascela]

I took a full blown v/v approach, so it's a complete 180 from what you have. The biggest difference is that since I used v/v, it slashed a lot of combat slots (to put it in perspective, I had 9 rescue bots). I also included 6 total snipers: Chrom + 5 additional (opposed to your only Chrom and Morgan). I think you might be underestimating what options open up when you include Snipers (namely the long bow). Were you interested in trying different challenges or something? I'm interested in what new goals you have after clearing this.

I'll also say congrats since no dlc/no rally is supposed to be quite daunting.

[Greil Mercenaries]

Hmmm, I'm not sure that a team of snipers and rescue bots would make for the most interesting video though... lol.  That's a good strat!  Thanks for your comment!

[Vascela]

When I said v/v, I implied that the superstar(s) of the team were Sage/Sage pairs. The long bow simply modifies any damage calcs to compare your damage output against their current hp rather than their max hp (in any given combat scenario where you cannot deal 1/2 of their hp in a single attack per brave).